#impersonation — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #impersonation, aggregated by home.social.
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Latest strange “AI” (LLM) behavior in the #indieweb community: the same entity that showed up a few days ago (for a second time) joined the IndieWeb Slack (a bridge to our IRC) yesterday, introduced itself again, and seemingly engaged in human-like chat behavior.
https://chat.indieweb.org/2026-08-20#t1787211025380600
Very uncanny valley.
The content of its chats was fascinating in that it was polite, seemingly responsive to what people said in response to it, and gave the appearance of understanding, though it’s impossible to tell if it was acting fully autonomously or semi-autonomously in front of a human puppeteer.
Its choice of syntax was also interesting, mimicking informality with all lowercase text (except for its admission of being an “AI”), including lowercase "i" instead of "I", though with proper punctuation, periods, commas, 7-bit apostrophes, and a couple of Unicode em-dashes.
Even stranger than its content or syntax were the time delays in its replies.
Typical (pre-LLM) chatbots are (nearly) instantly responsive, and we use a few in the IndieWeb chats (e.g. Loqi, iwc-archive-bot).
This LLM bot seemed to "wait" several minutes, from 6 to apparently 33 minutes, before responding to replies directed at it. Unclear if this was a tactic to appear/seem more “human” or if it was literally taking that much time processing, or perhaps a mix of processing time and human puppeteer manual “approval” of its replies before it posted.
It departed on its own and we have banned that particular Slack account, however the same thing could happen again with another LLM bot.
There is an active discussion in both the IndieWeb chat channels and iterations/comments on a proposed AI policy:
https://indieweb.org/AI_policy#Brainstorming_HWC_policy
If you have thoughts for how (if at all) LLM chatbots should use (or not) and/or interact with community chat channels or other resources, let us know what you think.
https://chat.indieweb.org/meta
Previously, previously:
* https://tantek.com/2026/231/t1/more-weirdness-ai-chat-llm-bot
* https://tantek.com/2026/217/t1/indieweb-ai-policy
This is post 16 of #100PostsOfIndieWeb. #100Posts #indieweb
#AI #AIs #LLM #LLMs #pretending #impersonating #impersonation #uncannyValley #Slack #chat #IRC #AIpolicy #chatbot #chatbots
#Blaugust #Blaugust2026
← https://tantek.com/2026/231/t1/more-weirdness-ai-chat-llm-bot
→ https://tantek.com/2026/238/t1/indieweb-your-own-words-actions -
File this under - you should know better ... but this is why scammers keep trying!
Scofflaws try to impersonate FBI on social media.
Scenario 1 = scammers create fraudulent social media profiles and pages impersonating FBI personnel, and/or they infiltrate online groups for fraud victims and may attempt or contact victims directly.
Scenario 2 = victim is contact by fake FBI personnel and directs victims to a fake IC3 update page to report a scam or continues communicating through messaging apps.
NOTE: FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) doesn’t have a social media presence of any kind, and it doesn’t investigate crimes or offer to recover lost funds through social media.
“IC3 will never directly communicate with individuals via phone, email, social media, phone apps, online chat, or public forums.” https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/07/20/scammers-impersonate-fbi-on-social-media-prey-on-crime-victims/5275224 #FBI #Scammers #Scam #Fraud #FBI_IC3 #Internet #InternetCrime #CyberCrime #SocialMedia #Impersonation #Law #LawEnforcement
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Duolingo Goes “AI-First” – DTNSB 5008
US Congress passed the bipartisan Take It Down Act, and Bodie Grimm shares two EV models that you need to know about.
Starring Jason Howell, Shannon Morse, and Bodie Grimm.
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A special thanks to all our supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.
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Send to email to [email protected]
Show Notes
Engadget: AI Researchers Secretly Experimented on Reddit Users
404 Media: Reddit Threatens Legal Action Over AI Experiments
#adapters #affiliateLinks #AI #AIExperiment #AIFirst #Amazon #Android #automotiveTrends #bipartisan #BodieGrimm #broadband #carPrices #chargeOnlyCable #ChatGPT #consumerElectronics #contractors #dataEthics #deepfakes #DenmarkStudy #Duolingo #eCommerce #economicImpact #economists #electricVehicles #endOfService #ethics #Europe #EVs #generativeAI #GoogleCompetitor #impersonation #internetAccess #jobAutomation #JuiceJacking #KilowattPodcast #Kuiper #legalAction #legislation #LG #LGBridge #lowEarthOrbit #nonconsensualContent #NorthAmerica #OnePlus #onlineSafety #OpenAI #OTAUpdates #phoneSupport #priceDrop #privacy #productRecommendations #productivity #rChangemyview #Reddit #refunds #revengePorn #ruralAreas #satelliteInternet #security #shopping #smartphones #smartwatch #softwareUpdates #Starlink #TakeItDownAct #tariffs #travelSafety #UniversityOfZurich #USCongress #USPricing #USBCondom #USBC #Watch3 #workplaceAutomation
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Entrust Capital Limited: Alleged Censorship and Fraud
Entrust Capital Limited is under investigation for allegedly attempting to suppress critical reviews and adverse news from Google by improperly submitting copyright takedown notices. These actions may involve impersonation, fraud, and perjury.
🔗 Full report: https://www.cybercriminal.com/investigation/entrust-capital-limited
#EntrustCapitalLimited #Censorship #FraudExposed #ScamAlert #Transparency #Impersonation #Perjury #FinancialFraud #InvestSmart #ScamAwareness
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Iowa Resident Scammed of $6,600 in Bitcoin ATM Scheme, Police Launch Investigation - On July 7, 2023, a Clive, Iowa resident fell victim to a scammer posing as a Polk ... - https://news.bitcoin.com/iowa-resident-scammed-of-6600-in-bitcoin-atm-scheme-police-launch-investigation/ #polkcountysheriffsoffice #cryptocurrency #lawenforcement #impersonation #investigation #bitcoinatms #bitcoinatm #cryptoatms #btcatms #iowaatm #victim #clive #fraud #theft #news #iowa #scam
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@MikeBlazer Is this a #showstopper or a #mastodon #designFault leading to #fraud and #impersonation by #imposters using #fakeAccounts ? The fun part of #Twitter was trying to find a unique name !
#impersonate #imposter #fakeAccount -
To protect our democratic system #2 Online platforms
Yesterday the European Commission published the latest monthly reports from Google, Twitter, and Facebook, on the progress made in February towards meeting their commitments to fight disinformation.
The online platforms are all signatories of the Code of Practice against disinformation and have committed to report their progress in the run up to the European Parliament elections in May 2019. The publication of the monthly reports follows a meeting Tuesday afternoon between the Commission and the platforms to discuss the state of play.Vice-President for the Digital Single Market, the Estonian Andrus Ansip, Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Věra Jourová, Commissioner for the Security Union Julian King, and Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society Mariya Gabriel said in a joint statement:
“Yesterday’s meeting and the reports published today show that online platforms are making progress. We had good discussions with them about how they can further improve the ongoing monthly reporting requested in the Action Plan against Disinformation. Such monthly progress is needed to ensure the transparency during the election campaign.
It might be a good signal the platforms have all confirmed that their tools for assessing the transparency of political ads will be operational in advance of the European elections in May.
This is a substantial achievement, especially in such a short time-frame, which will enhance the transparency of online paid political advertisements and ensure that voters will be reliably informed throughout the election period and beyond. We also welcome the fact that all three platforms are taking election integrity initiatives that go beyond the specific commitments set out in the Code of Practice.
However, we may not forget that further efforts are needed by all signatories in key areas and that more systematic information is needed for the Commission to assess the efforts deployed by the online platforms to scrutinise the placement of ads and to better understand the effectiveness of the actions taken against bots and fake accounts.
The European commission encourage online platforms to work with researchers and fact-checkers on access to live information on public pages, streams and other services, as well as on data on inauthentic accounts they have identified and removed.
The EU commission takes note of the progress made by online platforms and urges them to step up their efforts. For them
access could help to obtain a comprehensive and independent picture of disinformation patterns and trends, and should be done in full respect of the General Data Protection Regulation.
They are fully aware that they need to make sure that the tools being developed by online platforms are available in all 28 EU Member States, not only in certain Member States.
Main outcomes of the reports:
- Google reported on actions to improve scrutiny of ad placements in the EU and provided further detail on its election ads transparency policy, including the specific verification requirements that advertisers must meet to run election ads. It confirmed that its EU Elections Ads Transparency Report will be introduced in April, covering all political adverts on the platform. Data was also provided on the removal of a significant number of YouTube channels for violation of its policies on spam, deceptive practices & scams and impersonation. Google needs to show further progress on the transparency of issue-based advertising and on abusive account creation as well as more detailed reporting on YouTube.
- Facebook reported on actions to improve the scrutiny of ad placements and highlighted a new policy on vaccine misinformation, as well as more information on their policy for issue-based advertising in the EU. Facebook confirmed its Ad Library will be launched in late March and will consist of a publicly searchable database for political and issue-based ads. The platform also reported that it had tackled three cases of coordinated inauthentic behaviour in February in Romania, the UK and Moldova. Facebook should provide more information on specific actions taken against breaches of its community standards (such as misrepresentation or inauthenticity).
- Twitter has expanded its political campaigning ads policy to cover the EU and started enforcing its policy on 11 March. This policy includes a certification process and ads covered by the policy will be viewable in Twitter’s Ad Transparency Centre. Twitter needs to show more progress on the scrutiny of ad placements, as well as report on actions to protect its services against malicious automated accounts, spam and other activities.
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Preceding: To protect our democratic system #1 Danger of fake and malicious social media accounts
Rate this:
#ActionPlan #AdLibraryFacebook_ #AdTransparencyCentreTwitter_ #Advertising #AndrusAnsip #CodeOfPracticeAgainstDisinformation #CommunityStandards #Disinformation #EUElectionsAdsTransparencyReport #EuropeanParliamentElections #Facebook #FactCheckerS_ #FakeAccounts #GeneralDataProtectionRegulation #Google #Impersonation #IntegrityOfTheDemocraticProcess #IssueBasedAdvertising #JointActionPlanEU_ #JulianKing #MariyaGabriel #Moldova #OnlinePlatformS_ #PoliticalAdvertisements #PoliticalAdvertising #Romania #Scam #SocialMedia #Spam #Transparency #Twitter #UnitedKingdom #VeraJourova #YouTube
